Samurai Concherto, Chapter 1, Part 1 (Updated as of Dec 10)

[Brewmaster]

So, I've got a bit of a longer idea here that I'll post a minimum of each Wednesday. Anytime there's an update, I'll linky-link here. Hope you guys enjoy!

The measured timbre from the guitar strings wafted up to mingle with the cigar smoke. Knife edges of sunset came in through the shuttered window to frame the guitar player in pin stripes. The chair gave a satisfying creak as he shook the sleep out of his legs, tapping out an accompanying beat with the toes of his boots. "You sound down girl." The sandpaper voice finally broke the melodious calm. "How long since your last tune up?" He danced on the strings for a moment, then replied "Oh don't be that way. The other fellas use cases because they don't know a good guitar needs some aging. Might as well be one of them wine collectors."

The man tapped the embers of his cigar out into a soup bowl on the table in front of him. It had been nearly 30 minutes at this point, but the man could wait. Chasing bounties was like chasing music; rushing it will just end up messy. It's more satisfying to let the prize come to you. And this bounty was looking exceptionally juicy. Connie Tanner; all-around sleaze, gifted with the talents of extortion, cattle rustling, and forgery. Connie also understood the rule of dodging the Guild custom-tailored noose: keep your nose down, and go out far enough from the city to make it too expensive to be found. Fortunately Connie made enough enemies along the way that the paycheck would eventually get good enough.
 

The man's fingers paused as the muted clopping of hooves on dirt road reached him. He tapped the bridge of the guitar, mulling the next few minutes over in his head. Connie was a panicky sort, and those kind of people could swing a situation wildly. A short, frumpy looking man sloshed his way awkwardly through the front door, reeking of the Three Kingdoms drink saw-kay. Connie blinked his eyes until they stopped swimming, then stumbled in the direction of his bed. He nearly fell from spinning around at the sound of the man striking a match on his boot to light a new cigar. "Washh are you doin in mah house?" Connie declared, pointing a finger at the spitoon behind the man.
 

"Connie Tanner... you've been a bad boy. I've been paid to learn you some manners." The man responded, plucking out a simple tune. Connie's face mushed through a couple emotions before finally settling on anger, followed by an enthusiastic fumbling for his coat pistol. The man spun up from his chair, feeling the dig of the guitar strap as he slung the guitar behind him. His hands slid over the ivory pistol grips he knew by heart, and the man had two guns to Connie's chest before Connie could even find the coat pocket. "Now just WHY would you go and do a damn fool thing like that? Men get awfully ornery, you try and pull a gun on em. You might even up and hurt someone. Now, you want to play 20 questions and guess which of your messes brought me here, or you want me to just cut to the business end of it?"
 

Connie's eyes waltzed around the man's even stare; his mouth was trying to mutter something clever but tripping over itself. Connie's shoulders finally slumped, and he slouched to the ground with his hands in his lap. "I'm nnot... the baddie here." Connie slurred. "Ish it myy fault stupids are stupid? I ASK YOU."
 

The man stared at Connie for a moment as he let the gravity of the situation sit on Connie's shoulders. "So... You're just teaching them a lesson... burnt hand learns best and all that. Am I crystal so far?" Connie nodded sluggishly. The man snapped the butt of one pistol across Connie's face. "I've got all kinds of talking I could do here, but truth of it is I'm just collecting a check on this one. And you don't seem like the type who'd listen at any rate, so how about we just make this transaction nice and easy." Connie's eyes gained a moment of clarity, and he held his hands out in front of him.
 

"Well Sheriff? Gonna clap me in irons?" Connie said, swaying to some non-existent wind. The man chuckled as he holstered his pistols and pulled out a set of handcuffs.
 

"Call me Sue." As Sue brought the handcuffs to Connie's skin, Connie recoiled in a vehement howl, gingerly holding his sizzling wrists. Sue blew out a slow trail of smoke, tapping the toe of his boot on the floor. "Aayup. Looks about right. So, I have a bounty to bring in Connie Tanner. Who in the blue blazes are you? You smell like you rolled in a sah-kay barrel even though Connie's go-to is scotch, you went heel with your right hand even though Connie's a lefty, and most cattle punchers don't take a pistol butt like you did, much less a pencil pusher like Connie."
 

Connie's face cracked slightly as the wobbling drunk was replaced by a tensed predator. What first looked like an underbite was in actuality Connie's mouth stretching out. "Well I'll be a Gremlin banker. You're some kinda special, aintcha fido?" For a moment that stretched on like a rainstorm, the two stared at each other, their heartbeats ticking away like pocketwatches in their ears. Then the thunderbolt of violence struck.
 

The creature that was Connie slapped away the handcuffs that Sue threw at him, letting out a howl at the sizzle. Sue's pistols were storms of their own, sending thunderclaps through the air and hitting nothing. Tufts of fur broke through the creatures skin as his ears crinkled and extended to a point. "A fox hunt is it? This day just keeps getting fancier." Sue commented beneath the windchime clatter of the bullet shells hitting the floor.
 

"Kitsune, you insolent human!" The creature bellowed as it swiped at Sue with several flashes of claws. "You dishonor me with your ignorant tongue!" Sue kept his cool as the cacophony of destruction shredded the house, but the fight was swinging wildly out of his control. He had prepped for a bag job, not this doppelganger. Fate it seemed had a sense of humor today.
 

The door to the house exploded inward from a momentous sledgehammer hit. The person holding the hammer was the exact opposite of what Sue anticipated. It was a young woman with her brunette hair up in a loose ponytail. Her look said railworker, complete with an impressively tuned pneumatic arm. With a wild gleam in her eye, the woman bellowed, "Alright you double-dealing louse ridden squirtstain! You're coming with holy mother fate what's with this crap?!"
 

"Quit your howling, wench!" The creature shouted. "Once I've snapped this insects bones like kindling and licked the marrow clean, I'll deal with you next." Sue felt the hairs on his neck stand as he could visibly see the woman bubbling over. His gut wrenched with panic as the full weight of a lightly glowing sledgehammer sailed past his face, clipping the creature slightly. Showers of debris spewed from the sledgehammer's impacts as the woman lashed out and forced the creature onto the defense.
 

"Ain't nobody alive who can get away with calling me a wench. It's too bad you signed your death warrant, but if it's any consolation I'm gonna get a LOT of use out of you as a throw rug." The woman said calmly, snapping a support beam with an explosive swing